


Extra Key

by sbdrag



Series: Stupid Cranky Boyfriends [2]
Category: Deus Ex (Video Games), Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Genre: M/M, adam is strangely ok with things, frank freaks out at relationships, stupid cranky boyfriends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-03-21
Packaged: 2018-03-18 20:58:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3583740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbdrag/pseuds/sbdrag
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of I Love This Bar, the beginning of the progression of Adam and Frank's relationship from "coworkers who occasionally make out" to "actually in a relationship".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Extra Key

Frank looked at the time in the corner of his screen. 10:57PM. He stretched in his seat. He’d just finished running a connectivity test through all of Sarif Industries’s new routers, which had taken most of the day to work the bugs out of. There were sure to be more problems popping up with VPNs and ACL configurations in the next few months, but for now, everything was working. 

He wasn’t working for the next few days, and it had been a couple months since he’d last gone out. A quick stop at home to change, and then he could head out to the Lonely Boot to check out the crowd. No doubt Jensen would be there since he’d been hanging around so much recently. Frank frowned.

Accidentally going home with Jensen once was one thing. Twice was… well, twice was going to the bar three days in a row and Jensen still being there and Frank was not going to let the man ruin his good time just by being there. Of course, once he’d gotten well and drunk, he was more than happy to let Jensen take the lead. Damn him and his good looks and that godforsaken voice. But three times… three times was getting uncomfortably close to “dating” territory, and four would definitely be moving in that direction. But Frank needed to decompress, and alcohol and a good lay were generally the best ways to get it. But what to do about Jensen…

Frank leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. The Lonely Boot was his usual haunt due to it’s convenient location near SI (and its parking garage), but it was far from the only club in the city. But he’d spent a couple weeks checking out the scene for the best place to relax, and his conclusion had been the Boot, so there was that. He could always just go home and drink, but that was usually more depressing than relaxing. And it wasn’t like he was going to just dance in the middle of his apartment for the hell of it. With a sigh, Frank sat up and searched for the nearest bars and clubs. There were a couple he’d thought about hitting up before settling on the Boot. He supposed now he’d get the chance to check them out. Making up his mind, he logged out of the system and rose to head home and change. 

He thought perhaps he could have just told Jensen he wasn’t… interested, but then that wasn’t exactly the truth. And he couldn’t tell the man not to hang out at a bar. But he knew if he was drunk around Jensen, he’d end up in the man’s apartment sooner or later that night, and that wasn’t what he wanted from a night out. Or at least, he didn’t think it was.

 

 

Adam took his last drink for the night, then paid the bartender and headed out. He’d been expecting to see Pritchard, it was getting to be that time, after all. But it looked like the technician wasn’t showing tonight, so there was no reason to stay longer. 

As he walked outside, Adam checked his watch. He didn’t really need a physical watch, but he’d seen an old analog in the window of a thrift shop and bought it on impulse. He’d fixed it up at home, and wore it now as a sort of nostalgia. One AM. With a sigh through his nose, Adam slipped his hands in his coat pockets and made his way back to the Chiron Building.

He saw him when he reached the bend in the hall leading to his room, but he wasn’t sure until he’d gotten up to the door. But it was him, Pritchard, curled into a ball with his head tucked against his knees and his back to the wall. Next to the door to Adam’s apartment, snoring. Adam shook his head, crouching down. 

Frank was dressed the way he usually did when he went out; dark, form-fitting clothing, hair loose. There was the faint smell of alcohol about him, so he had gone out. And gotten drunk, somewhere else. Adam frowned, then sighed. He stood, unlocking his door, and pushed it open. Then he leaned down again and picked up Francis, bridal style. 

The tech wrapped an arm around Adam’s neck subconsciously, causing the augmented man to feel the twitch of a smile. Adam walked through the door, kicking it closed, then made his way over to the couch. When he went to set his drunk colleague on his couch, however, he got a second surprise.

Pritchard’s grip on him tightened slightly as if trying to hold him there. Adam pulled away, looking down at the man. There seemed to be something… troubled, about his expression. Without thinking, Adam smoothed the hair back from Frank’s face, and the sleeping technician leaned into the touch. His features relaxed, and it made Adam catch his breath a little. 

Sure, it was interesting, making out with Pritchard on occasion and then going on like it hadn’t happened the rest of the time, but this was… different. This was… connecting. Adam felt like he was frozen; like the smallest movement would break the fragile thread between them. He felt like there was a wave rising inside of him; an immense pressure of some momentous, unrealized decision. 

And then the moment passed, and Adam stood up and stepped away. 

He went into his room, taking off his coat, and stripping out of his clothes. He took a shower, a cold one, trying to make sense of what he was feeling. He wanted… something. He’d felt something. Something… deeper. Like a fish about to break the surface, so close that the water above it rippled and rose. It didn’t feel… new, exactly, only… suppressed. Buried, or perhaps only unexplored. 

He’d already admitted he liked Francis, but how far did that go? Adam hadn’t considered it when he’d said it. At the time, he’d already considered his coworker a friend. So yes, he liked him. And so naturally, he’d wanted to keep him out of trouble, going to the bar and keeping Francis from going home with a random, potentially dangerous stranger. Or attempting to drive home and hurt himself. Casual make-outs seemed like a sort of bonus, and he couldn’t exactly hold it against a drunk man. And when sober, Pritchard seemed to ignore anything to do with the previous night. Adam had considered that to be the end of it, really.

But now he wasn’t so sure. He felt like he was at a breaking point; he would either have to commit to this, or stop. Completely. With a sigh, he closed his eyes and tilted his face into the spray. He let his thoughts drift for a while, just feeling the water on his skin and listening to the sound of it drumming on the floor. After a while, he got out, dried off and threw on a pair of boxers. 

He walked back out to the den, checking on Pritchard. The man was still asleep, although fitfully. He’d turned into the side of the couch, eyes tightly sealed and grimacing. Adam had never noticed him sleeping that way when they were curled up together, and that seemed to make the decision for him. It seemed more simple than he’d thought it would be, but maybe this was just one of those times when things just… clicked.

And so Adam walked around to the front of the couch, turned Francis over and picked him up again. Like before, the tech curled into him, and Adam carried him over to the bed. He set Frank down, took a minute to pull off his shoes, then climbed into the bed himself. He pulled the tech against him, spooning him, the man’s hair tickling his nose. He sighed, settling himself and pulling up the sheets, and slept.

 

 

Frank woke to the sound of an alarm bleating. He groaned, curling into himself, as his bed partner roused to lean over him and disable it. Pritchard tried to puzzle out who it was and what had happened last night, but it was all a bit fuzzy. He remembered a girl chatting him up, walking out and starting to make out with her, but then… he had felt something terribly wrong somehow, and he’d left. And then… 

The bed shifted, and then lightened as the man stood. Frank pulled the covers over his head as a light went on, and he heard a snort from somewhere in the room. The sound was familiar. There was a sound of general rummaging, and then a shower. Frank took the opportunity to sit up and look around. 

Jensen’s room. Right, now he remembered. He had stumbled along to the Chiron Building and fell asleep outside of Jensen’s door. So it seemed it hadn’t mattered that he’d gone somewhere else; he’d still ended up here. And this time, in the bed instead of on the couch. With a yawn, Pritchard flopped back down, curling into his side. He was too tired and too hungover to deal with this right now. He’d get some more sleep, then go home and try to puzzle this out. 

As Frank was drifting off, he felt something hit his stomach and started awake again. He sat up, blinking, to see Jensen pulling on his coat. He looked down at his lap, picking up what the man had thrown at him.

“What’s this?” he asked, completely lost as to why Jensen had thrown a key at him.

“My spare,” the man replied. Frank looked up at him, still having a hard time between the light and the sleep in his eyes. “To the apartment. Don’t lose it. My landlady doesn’t like replacing things.”

“Right,” Frank said, staring dumbly at the key again.

“Have to take care of something at work,” Jensen went on, turning off the light as he was leaving. “Lock up if you leave before I get back.”

Frank made a grunt of acknowledgment, listening as the door opened and closed. He shook his head, turning to set the key on the table with the alarm clock, then paused just before letting go of it as the impact of it hit. 

It was a key to Jensen’s apartment. To get in if Jensen wasn’t there. So he wouldn’t be locked out again. 

Frank swallowed, then held the key up again. This was definitely “relationship” territory. Without a doubt. He felt his hand tremor. Or was he just over-thinking this? It was, after all, just a key. To someone else’s apartment. With no rules given on when or why he could use it. From someone he had accidentally told that he found them attractive and had also made out with on several occasions. 

Without thinking, he stuffed the key in his pocket. This was fine. This was completely fine. It was just so he could lock up if he left before Jensen came back. If. That seemed like an invitation to stay. Did people normally invite coworkers to stay at their apartment and use their bed to sleep off a hangover? Frank put a hand to his forehead. All this thinking was giving him a headache. He laid down again, pulling up the blankets and shutting his eyes. He’d just get up in a minute, and return the key the next time he saw Jensen at work. Then he’d put this whole incident behind him and let things go back to normal. 

He took a deep breath, then let it go, forcing himself to relax. That was it. He was just over thinking things, reading too much into it. He’d stay away from bars and clubs for a while, letting things adjust, and then go back to what he’d been doing before. 

As he started dozing off, a little voice in Frank’s head seemed to ask him if that was what he really wanted. He found, a little to his annoyance, he didn’t have an answer to that.

 

 

When Adam came back, Francis had fallen back asleep. Not that there had been much doubt that he would, but considering his reaction to the previous times he’d woken up at Adam’s apartment, the security head had half expected him to bolt. 

Quietly, Adam got out of his clothes again and climbed back into bed. He’d had to check some physical security measures they’d recently installed, but everything was up and running. Gently, Adam pulled Francis into him, and the tech stirred. He blinked blearily, then closed his eyes again and let Adam pull him back. 

“Didn’t picture you as a cuddler…” he said, softly. He sounded half asleep, and probably was.

“Mm,” Adam replied, “Didn’t picture you as cuddly.”

“Want the key back?”

“Keep it.”


End file.
